The invention set forth in this specification pertains to new and improved dental articulators and more particularly to dental articulators which are more desirable than prior related articulators in that they can be manipulated into various positions facilitating work on dental casts or the like.
The term "articulator" is commonly utilized in the dental field to designate any of a wide variety of differently constructed and differently appearing devices for use in obtaining articulation corresponding to the articulation between maxillary and mandibular teeth of a particular individual. These devices have normally been constructed so as to utilize two principal assemblies or parts--a lower assembly and an upper assembly. The lower assembly in conventional articulators normally includes a plate-like structure commonly referred to as a mandibular bow which is adapted to hold and support simulated mandibular teeth while the upper assembly in a conventional articulator normally includes a corresponding plate-like structure commonly referred to as a maxillary bow which is adapted to hold or support simulated maxillary teeth.
Normally these assemblies are constructed so that the lower assembly includes a lower cross-member and the upper includes an upper cross-member. In a conventional articulator simulated condyle elements are located on one of these cross-members while simulated fossa elements are located on the other of these cross-members in engagement with the simulated condyle elements. These fossa elements are normally constructed so that such engagement permits conventional centric rotation, lateral movement and protrusive movement between the two assemblies corresponding to such rotation and movement of a human jaw.
It is not considered that an understanding of the present invention requires a more detailed description of various prior dental articulators. In spite of the fact that such articulators have been constructed in a number of different ways, as for example, to improve the ease of their use by a dentist, it is considered that there still exists a need for improvement in the construction of dental articulators. More specifically it is considered that there is a need for articulators which are constructed not only in such a manner as to simulate movement of maxillary teeth relative to mandibular teeth but which are also constructed in such a manner that simulated teeth held by the bows of an articulator can be located in various different positions with respect to one another so as to facilitate various operations as are performed by a dentist in utilizing an articulator.